Boulder researchers at center of eclipse-focused research

Scientists to use event to unravel mysteries of sun's atmosphere

By Charlie Brennan

Daily Camera

Posted:
08/17/2017 07:32:26 AM MDT

Principle investigator Ed DeLuca, left, Peter Cheimets, and Jenna Samra, work to prepare the Airborne Infrared Spectrometer for a practice flight ahead of the upcoming solar eclipse. Liquid nitrogen is used to cool the instrument. The research team from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and NCAR will fly on the NCAR Gulfstream-V research aircraft during the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse to take infrared measurements of the solar corona for about four minutes. The data will help scientists design a future instrument to measure the coronal magnetic field. See more photos and a video at timescall.com. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

The first total solar eclipse to sweep the contiguous United States in nearly a century is being viewed by scientists as an opportunity to apply the latest tools of technological inquiry to an age-old phenomenon, to learn more about the universe in which we live.

Boulder researchers will make a significant contribution to the work that will be done in the critical hour and 40 minutes that the moon's umbral shadow tracks a swift course from coast to coast, sparking wonder in the eyes of those in its path — while providing a rare opportunity to those devoted to unraveling the mysteries of the fiery engine at the core of our solar system.

He's working in concert with Boulder's Southwest Research Institute to chase the eclipse with two NASA WB-57 research jets. Twin telescopes placed on the nose of each aircraft are expected to yield the best-ever, high-frequency images of the solar corona, to better understand why its atmosphere is so much hotter than the sun's surface.

The aircraft will be chasing the eclipse at an altitude of 50,000 feet over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee, recording 30 high-definition visible and infrared images each second.

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"The corona is a million or more degrees, and the surface of the sun is something like 6,000 degrees, and it's a puzzle how energy gets radiated from the sun into its atmosphere," Seaton explained.

"From the planes, we can lengthen the eclipse. We can get more data by flying along with the moon's shadow. We can't keep up for very long, but they can keep with it long enough to get us extra data."

Bring the family

Seaton won't be in an airplane. He will be making ground-based observations from Salem, Ore., working in conjunction with noted astronomer Jay Pasachoff — his undergraduate adviser at Williams College and a veteran of 65 eclipses — using their data to complement what is gathered from the air.

"Building these complementary observations of the eclipse allows us to do something we can't do from space and can't do from the ground," Seaton said. "We'll have a complete set of observations that allows us to answer questions that normally aren't accessible to researchers."

He won't be too deep into his instruments to enjoy the experience Aug. 21 at about 10:17 a.m. PDT.

"Hopefully, we can get the equipment set up in advance, so it just does its job and we can get out and see the total eclipse," said Seaton, who is bringing his family along on this business trip.

Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research, meanwhile, will be utilizing the National Science Foundation/NCAR Gulfstream-V research aircraft to record infrared measurements for about four minutes, also focused on the solar corona's magnetism and thermal structure. Data gleaned during the eclipse should also yield more knowledge about the properties and composition of Mercury's surface.

NCAR scientists will also be on the ground at Casper Mountain in Wyoming, using a spectrometer to observe light in the infrared spectrum to complement data recorded from the air. Additionally, NCAR's research team will have two cameras deployed — a thermal infrared camera on loan from the FLIR corporation and a PolarCam from the 4D Corporation — to capture wavelengths of light visible to the human eye.

NCAR's Wyoming team will include Alyssa Boll, an electrical engineering student at the Colorado School of Mines currently interning at NCAR.

She has been helping with the coding that will control the PolarCam and its filter wheel, using software called LabVIEW. Boll, who will be a junior this fall, is also going to be working with the FLIR thermal infrared camera.

Work to which Boll is contributing can potentially yield a greater understanding of the sun's magnetic field, which influences space weather that can have dramatic impacts on everything from the operation of spacecraft to power grids and GPS systems on Earth.

"This opportunity is really a dream come true for me, especially at this age," said Boll, who is 20. "It really combines the skills I have learned in university so far, as well as my interests in research and astronomy. It is an awesome project and it is so exciting to be a part of it."

Pioneers past and future

Humans' bid to record this cosmic phenomenon and leverage it for greater scientific understanding of the solar system is hardly anything new. During the eclipse of 1878, Thomas Edison used his newly developed tasimeter, an extremely sensitive heat detector, in an effort to determine if the sun's corona gave off heat as well as light during the eclipse of 1878.

He did detect heat, but the device had been set too sensitively to render a meaningful reading. Albert Einstein was more successful in testing his theory of relativity against the backdrop of the 1919 eclipse.

Efforts to document the celestial phenomenon go back way further.

CU Professor Emeritus J. McKim "Kim" Malville believes a petroglyph discovered during a 1992 Chaco Canyon field school for CU and Fort Lewis College students that he led with then-Fort Lewis Professor James Judge may have depicted a total eclipse of the sun that took place over the region July 11, 1097.

"I would add that the petroglyph looks more celebratory than frightening," Malville said in an email. "If our interpretation is correct, they tried to depict the extraordinary sight of the corona, like nothing seen before, associated with a deity that was even more mysterious and powerful than they imagined.

"After 1097, all the Great Houses in Chaco were built at providing dramatic views of the rising or setting sun at winter or summer solstice. We speculate that the sun may thus have acquired enhanced importance after their brief glimpse of the corona."

The science of tomorrow will be carried out by the inspired children of today, and there are many scientists and educators who are encouraging the exposure of young people to the full eclipse, or even the partial eclipse as it will be visible in Colorado.

In that spirit, the St. Vrain Valley School District will be having every student step outside to view the event -— equipped with special eclipse-viewing safety glasses, provided by the St. Vrain Valley Schools' Science Department.

The event is also on the Boulder Valley School District's radar.

"We expect that the majority of our schools will have their students out taking part in this rare event," said Boulder Valley spokesman Randy Barber. "It's hard to resist something like this that's going on outside your window."

Thanks to a donation, he said, students will have solar glasses they can share to view the eclipse. Phil Mehalko, an employee at Ball Aerospace, donated money and received matching funds from Ball to cover the cost of enough glasses for about a fourth of the district's students.

Pasachoff, who is including several of his grandchildren as part of his retinue in Oregon, where he will work with Seaton, believes that's an investment in the discoveries to be made by future generations.

"For school children to be taken into the path of totality, who could be really inspired in their studies — and not just in science — maybe in 20 or 30 years we'll have all kinds of great discoveries because of children who were inspired by the summer's eclipse," Pasachoff said.

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